Prestigious White House award for Old Mountaineer

A former student at Mount St Mary's College is to receive a prestigious White House award for his outstanding contribution to the American world of science.

Dr Craig Brown, an instrument scientist for the Disk Chopper Spectrometer at the NIST Centre for Neutron Research (NCNR) in Maryland, learnt of the news when President Obama announced his name amongst a list of more than 100 other early researchers and recipients who also will be presented with the award at a special White House ceremony.

Dr Brown comes originally from Sheffield and was educated by the Jesuits at the Derbyshire school in the 1980s.  He will be given a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

'The award is quite an amazing recognition of the environment and support I have benefited from whilst working at the NCNR and reflects upon the creativity and abilities of all of my collaborators,' says Dr Brown. 'I am a product of the education of Mount St Mary's and I have really fond memories of the students and teachers from my time there.'

Dr Brown excelled in sciences during his time at Mount St Mary's and went on to read Natural Science at the University of Cambridge.  He will return next year to meet staff and students and to give a talk on his career successes.

Mr Laurence McKell, headmaster at Mount St Mary's, based at Spinkhill, said: 'Craig's success is an inspiration to our budding scientists and we look forward to him visiting the school in the coming year.

'We aim to help each student develop their talents both in and outside the classroom and it will be wonderful for our students to hear from Craig about the significant part that science plays in all our lives.'



 NCNR

 Mount St Mary's College